Phones and Computers

Come tomorrow you will be able to purchase an iPhone from Wal-Mart. This truly disappoints me. I thought the price tags $197.00 and $297.00 would keep the head buyers at WallyWorld away. But, alas, once again my judgment is faulty. This is not good for competitors in the cell phone business. Yet, it may not have the results predicted by CNetNews.com.

The major manufacturers will not sit idly by and let Apple dominate the cell phone business without a fight. This may mean super prices for consumers in other brands. I've resisted the purchase of a V9 Razr because of one reason; price. I will not give someone over $300.00 for a phone that will be available for purchase at $100.00 or less in the near future. I would have given $150.00 for a V9 back in the spring, but Wal-Mart just assured me that even this imaginary price will drop.

I still don't like Apple. They are overrated and Apple does most of the over-rating. A huge plus to selling more product for the Apple people will be to stop telling lies and making false claims. They finally have a decent product to sell with Intel chips and OS10 (the FreeBSD rip-off often mentioned here) yet they still want everyone to think they can equal the performance of a PC. Sorry, that's just false. They have to become price competitive in the computer market as well.

Here a real killer. Look at the availability of software for Apple and then look at the software for PCs. Also, remember that the number one software seller for Apple is Microsoft Office. So, if they keep improving their hardware, let other companies manufature and sell some of their hardware, become competitive in pricing and make their Jaguar, Tiger, Wildcat, Housecat, Pooopdog, Hotdog or whatever it is called now operating system available in a prepackaged form for PCs - they will be a formidable hardware competitor. Delivering a pre-packaged OS10 product for Windows based PCs is a nice idea. Let's face it. This marketing style has gathered almost 90% of the sales worldwide for Windows.

If iDarth and Bozo (Jobs and Ballmer) will get out of the way, both companies should thrive. Windows is set up for a huge fall if they do not deliver a fantastic product this next year titled Windows 7. They have the capability to recover from the way they handled the Vista distribution. After all they followed Windows ME (Millenium) with Windows 2000. Windows 2000 changed computing worldwide. Then they followed with an improved Windows 2000 called XP. Yes, it took Microsoft almost 5 years to issue enough patches to make it solid, but XP is still the most desirable OS on the planet.

It is sad that companies like Dell are charging $150.00 to "downgrade" to XP Pro from Windows Vista Business or Home Premium versions. There's nothing wrong with Vista. At least not with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. Home Basic needs to be taken off the shelves and Business needs some work if it is to stay viable. I say do away with both and sell only Ultimate and Home Premium. They are good operating systems. Software and hardware compatibility issues are hurting Vista as much as anything. Especially business software. My crystal ball tells me Windows 7 will address these issues with the gusto of a hound dawg.

So, go ahead. Do your iPod dance, the iPhone Waltz and the Mac Bop. I'll stick with Windows. After all, if Steve Jobs had his way back years ago we'd all be paying $5000 plus for technology that would nowadays be 2 years old. Windows changed things. You can buy a very decent PC desktop for well under a $1000.00 that will blow away any Apple made. Plus you can buy from several different manufacturers. Case rests and I am outta here to work on Windows networks. Ever seen an Apple network around this area?

"After a visit to the beach, it's hard to believe that we live in a material world."
~Shaw